Kim Kardashian Visited An Abusive Elephant Zoo

Kim Kardashian recently visited what she called an "elephant sanctuary" in Bali and posted about it on her Instagram for her 1.37 million followers to see. The problem is: wherever she was was absolutely not a sanctuary, in fact it was a captive elephant park called Mason Adventures, one of hundreds of abusive centers where elephants are beaten into submission to behave in certain ways for tourists like her.

The main reason we know she was not at a sanctuary is that in the photo, we can see an employee riding the elephant she's posing with. According to World Animal Protection and all other reputable animal rights groups, there are zero circumstances under which a human riding an elephant is ok. In order to get an elephant to allow a human on its back, the elephant must go through a cruel torture process called "the crush". "The crush" is a series of physically and psychological torture tactics to break an animal's spirit and body in order to make it behave how you want it to. The process usually involves taking baby elephants from their mothers and then beating, starving and chaining them as they grow up without proper socialization.

The second big clue we have that this is not a sanctuary is that the man riding the elephant seems to be using some sort of hook to manage the animal, which is part of "the crush". At a true sanctuary, the elephants can roam far and wide and humans don't try to manage them at all, they simply protect the area so elephants can be free. Elephants have zero natural enemies and are extremely peaceful. But humans have hunted them and enslaved them for tourism so much that they are nearing extinction.

Kim Kardashian acts like she cares about animals some of the time. It's possible she doesn't know the horrible truth behind this place that's calling itself a sanctuary. That's why we need to get her attention with as many signatures as possible! She needs to know she has just encouraged her followers to engage in this abusive industry when what we need is for everyone to boycott the industry altogether.

Will you sign on asking Kim to post an apology as well as info on elephant abuse and encourage her followers never to visit a captive elephant organization.

The impulse to see an elephant makes sense, but there is a right way to do it and a wrong way to do it. Here are two actual sanctuaries vouched for by The Dodo where Kim coudl encourage her followers to go.

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